Affinity Photo/Procreate .psd problems

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Hi all, this might be a Procreate problem, but I'm asking.. maybe I'm not alone :-)

The thing is every time I try to import a .psd made in Affinity Photo (iPad Pro) into Procreate, Procreate crashes.. but if I try to import a .psd file, made with Photoshop (iMac desktop) it imports just fine.. both on AP and PS i made an 8 bit RGB file (as it is what Procreate uses) but only the Affinity Photo files makes Procreate crash..

I have also posted this in the Procreate forum and sent the files to the Procreate support team.. but its a little strange it only crashes the AP .psd´s

I use the second generation iPad Pro 12,9, latest iOS and latest Affinity Photo and Procreate.

Any suggestions? Other than that, I'm super happy with AP and I can't wait for Affinity Designer.. for iPad :-)

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This isn't something we're currently aware of but certainly something we can look into!
Could you please upload the files here too, so I can pass them through to our dev team? If you don't want them to be public then you can send me a private message through my profile.
Thanks

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Do you have Affinity Photo on your Mac, or iPad only? I'm away from the office this weekend and so won't have a testing opportunity until Monday, but if possible I would ask for you to create a .psd in Affinity Photo Mac and see if this will import into Procreate. Not to worry if not, just a good starting point for us!

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If someone who reads this, it would be cool if they can make a psd in Affinity for Mac and I can test here too.. :-)

I am not sure if this is what you want, but I made colosseum-3456784_1920.psd from a jpeg downloaded from this Pixabay source. I used the Affinity Photo "PSD (Preserve editability)" preset & the Bilinear resampling method on my Mac, if that makes any difference.

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Same here, when importing from the macOS versions of Photo and Designer to Procreate, everything works as expected ever since I updated Photo and Designer a while ago and made sure it exports as 8 bit.

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I've managed to re-create this issue, creating a .psd on Affinity Photo Mac brings up an error on import to Procreate rather than a crash so I suspect this to be related. I'll have this raised with our dev team straight away, thanks for letting us know!

Interestingly enough, an image opened in Affinity Photo (iPad) without any edits will export and open fine in Procreate, as soon as any object or filter is added, it crashes on import.

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I've managed to re-create this issue, creating a .psd on Affinity Photo Mac brings up an error on import to Procreate rather than a crash so I suspect this to be related. I'll have this raised with our dev team straight away, thanks for letting us know!

Interestingly enough, an image opened in Affinity Photo (iPad) without any edits will export and open fine in Procreate, as soon as any object or filter is added, it crashes on import.

Thanks a lot for looking into this :-) Hopefully it’ll be sorted out and a solution will appear as soon as you get time! :-)

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I've found a slight workaround, if you need this workflow in the future.
If you export the .psd from Affinity Photo iPad, open in it Photoshop Mac and simply save it as a new .psd file (ensuring maximise compatible is checked) then it will open as expected on Procreate. I understand it adds an extra step, but I have so found it to work on my test files!

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I've found a slight workaround, if you need this workflow in the future.
If you export the .psd from Affinity Photo iPad, open in it Photoshop Mac and simply save it as a new .psd file (ensuring maximise compatible is checked) then it will open as expected on Procreate. I understand it adds an extra step, but I have so found it to work on my test files!

Ah cool, it’s a livable workaround till there will be a real fix :-)

I’ll test when I get to my home Mac.

I was hoping to switch to Affinity on my iMac and MacBook Pro too, but I guess it’s worth to save Photoshop a little more :-)

Thanks!! :-)

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Just got Affinity Designer for Mac, and I just want to inform that the same thing happens here.. well there, when I export a .psd from Designer and tries to import it to Procreate.. it crashes. Maybe its the same thing, but just wanted to inform :-)

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@Dan C do know anything more about this? If I understood right, you found an issue with the way Affinity was using psd files.. do you know if the fix was implemented in Designer for iPad? Because I still have the same issue there.

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Surely this is too basic, but is the canvas size of the file larger than 8k x 8k pixels ? or any side x side combination that gives same total pixels. I know is (or it was?) a limitation in Procreate, but probably not in A. photo.

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Nice thought SrPx, but unfortunately this happens on 1800 x 1350 pixel documents... however I wasn't aware of such limitations with Procreate so I'll bear it in mind!

To be honest, it was a shot in the dark, at best....

Well, this was from sth I heard, but when I have some minute, I prefer to be accurate... also because is all related to the actual iPad hardware improvements per version, I suppose as well, the specific graphic libraries (I guess from iOS or third parties) by each app, and etc. (not that I know a word about non-web coding, lol).

So, it seems, if the actual Procreate (from which I guess a lot of people is gonna be importing their works into both Photo (and AD sometimes), and Art Studio (and extremely strong competitor to Procreate that WILL grow very strong as for certain advantages, and is actually a competitor to AP, as is more PS-like, while focused on painting: Will grab user base from procreate (as it cleverly fills some huge gaps) in the painting field, and from AP for a bit of the image editing, for those not needing too much to end their illustration, comic, texture, retouch or etc) if it keeps accurate its own F.A.Q page, it seems that right at this very moment the situation is as follows : (will change very fast if you revisit this thread some months later, I GUESS ) :

- The canvas size and number of layers are very hard linked (terrible disadvantage compared to working on desktop with AP, at least for illustrators like me, which their 99% of the work is sent to print, and often need tons of layers). Always there's a link between number of layers and canvas size, but in this case seems too few layers are possible in print resolutions. This for example is a nightmare for those of us with the gigs from time to time of making game maps, for example. Or any complex graphic. or customer wanting modular changes, etc. So, I think I understood that to get the highest size possible, you need to work with one only layer ! . And anyway, dunno if is a software app specific limit (happens only in Procreate or...), or an iPad memory/iOS library issue, but the number of layers even with a not too big canvas is a pretty small number. Big issue... I know certain good painters say you only have to work with one layer to do real painting, but I have been an oils and acrylics trad painter for decades: I don't need that habit, and I know many layers are time savers too often.

- iPad pro 12,9 and 10,5 inches allow a max res of 67 mega pixels, so, it'd depend on the combination of side and width, but there is where connects with my statement of a rectangle of 8k pixels side.... And I was wrong, in a way. It is a different limit. Is two limits: One the 67 mega pixels as total number of possible pixels in a canvas, another that there's a hard limit of any side length, no matter what. In the ipad pro is 16,384 pixels. (in other ipads, seems from 4,096 to 8,192 depending on the iPad version).

- I was not wrong in my original vague statement at least in a practical way : Most ppl interested in drawing are using the iPad pro, or if not just the desktop... and due to the two limits combined, you can make a totally square canvas of a max side of 8.192 pixels.Directly pasted from their faq at the date of this post of mine, here are their max resolutions per iPad model (I'm very much hoping their faqs are already updated with their very recent Procreate 4.1 version. It'd be weird if not.... ) :

[ Consider tho the fact that it has been reported sluggish performance when reaching the limit and painting even with average sized brushes, tho... While in the other side I can paint very smoothly with certain painters in the desktop with a 9 year old machine at large resolutions (even 20k x 20k, tho not with every software app... yet could be very well with all just with a recent and decent machine)... And these are not even really huge (indeed, I need a better machine, asap...) . The thing is, a 8.000 x 8000 square canvas might be valid for some box covers (67 cm per side square, I believe, at the usual 300 dpi) , but not for others. And while posters are often print at 200 dpi (as ppl never get so close to the paper), when not at 150 dpi if cloth is involved (depends a lot on the material), well, it all just is often not enough. I try to push to vectors when the size is too big, but is not always possible. And some of these are *very* interesting projects to not take them...Well, this paragraph is all a side comment (almost rant about tablets in general ). ]

Yes, I do believe is a great idea (even while I believe the desktop is the key) to keep an eye on import from Procreate, as well as from Artstudio Pro, as these are surely the two king apps for painters in the iPad (which for the iPad Pro, always in proportion (never absolute numbers, as there the desktop wins by KO) they are a legion in the iPad pro). I even think a bunch will still export to AP, as while Artstudio might win the battle against Procreate (but Procreate has a large user base already, and is too friendly for painters, so, a tough battle, anyways), because is very good for painting, but has very essential PS-like features that Procreate does not support since start.... Something as important as a text tool! Or a CMYK mode (probably neither supported in Artstudio). I don't own licenses of AP nor AD in the iPad, so I don't know about this point, but if AP counts on a CMYK mode also in the iPad, then you have a clear sharp edge against anyone else on the iPad...Unless Artstudio has it already, but I believe it hasn't... (I was in the idea that no application can have it in the iPad, so I'm pretty uncertain about the matter). So, yep, perhaps making some import tests with these two might quite be worth it. (surely as well from Sketchbook Pro, tho imo Procreate and Artstudio Pro have and will get quite a lot more traction )

This all is going to be changing: Both apps evolve at speed of light, as AP and AD do too, and the iPad keeps being updated with better hardware specs.... this data above serves only as an indication for this moment... I expect these limitations are going to be there at least many months, maybe one year... but that just what I wildly suppose (another shot in the dark).

Edit: Somewhere I have read that the limitation might have to do (message to those of you with the magic capability of programming) with using some library called Metal, from Apple. May it be related to this 2D maximum texture width and height ? (~ 16 k pixels) I can't know, am just a frikin' pixel pusher.... :